Wednesday 29 July 2015

Connect with Year 5/6 Term 3, Week 7

CONNECT WITH YEAR 5/6

Learning and Teaching
 

In Year 5/6 We Are Learning To....

READING: The next reading strategy we are focusing on is Connecting. The students will connect what they read to their lives, to other texts and to the world around them. Within reading lessons, the Year 5/6 students have been learning about Colonial Australia and the Gold Rush.


WRITING: The students will look at the text type 'narrative'. We will be investigating a range of narratives, where we find them, why we have them and how to construct them. We will be looking at how to create an interesting introduction, complication and resolution. It is exciting to facilitate the creativity in the writing of the students to allow them to construct their own narrative and to publish a piece of writing.

Spelling:
We are so excited to introduce our new spelling approach called "SMART Spelling". This new approach was introduced to the school by our English Professional Learning Team and was our focus at our last Professional Development day. Students will have daily spelling activities as well as homework to support and improve their spelling skills.
SMART Spelling is based around whole words with an emphasis on meaning and vocabulary development. The SMART Spelling process uses pattern and regularity to explicitly and systematically teach spelling.






MATHS: We will be be concluding our maths unit on Fractions and Decimals. Students will be extending their knowledge on this topic and working at their point of need to improve their understanding on how and where we use Fractions and Decimals in our world.


INQUIRY: The students have been working on their projects researching the 'big questions' of our unit on Colonial History. They are:
1. What do we know about the lives of people in Australia's colonial past and how do we know?
2. How did an Australian colony develop over time and why?
3. How did colonial settlement change the environment?
4. What were the significant events and who were the significant people that shaped Australian colonies?

Students have been involved in building their own project. We have worked on what we would like to research, how we will gather and how we will present our information. We have included the students in the design process, giving them some ownership over how and what they would like to study about Colonial Australia. These projects will be undertaken at school and at home. They will be completed by the end of Term 3.

 
eLEARNING: The Year 5/6 students are continuing to use iPads to investigate the range of software available. They will continue to work with iMovie and Garage Band throughout Term 3. 

We will be introducing Movie Maker to the students and teaching them how to attach their Garage Band music to the footage or slideshows.


Calendar Dates

  • 25/8 - 2/9 Somers Camp
  • 3/9   Fathers' Day Breakfast
  • 4/9   District Athletics
  • 9/9   Big Green Schools Conference
  • 9/9   Maths Olympiad 5
  • 15/9 Marine Ambassador Workshop 4
  • 18/9 End of Term 3, 2:30pm finish

 Making News


Excursion to Sovereign Hill
On Thursday 13th August the year 5 & 6 students visited Sovereign Hill, Ballarat as part of their Colonial Australia unit of study From Past To Present. The students stepped back in time to experience life in the 1800s. They investigated life on the goldfields, learnt about multiculturalism during this period and examined the effects of the Gold Rush on Victoria's development. The research conducted on the day will help the students complete their projects in class.









District Athletics
The Mordialloc District Athletics Carnival will be held next Friday 4th September at Dolomore Oval in Mentone. Students from years 4-6 will be representing Mentone Park in a range of track and field events. Parents are more than welcome to come down to Dolomore to support our students. See you there!


Achievement Awards
Congratulations to the following students who received achievement awards:
Jake 5D
Monty 5/6S
Jessica 6W

Thursday 16 July 2015

Connect With Year 5/6 - Term 3, Week 1

CONNECT WITH YEAR 5/6

Learning and Teaching

 


In Year 5/6 We Are Learning To....

READING: The next reading strategy we are focusing on is 'synthesizing'. The students will combine ideas from the texts they read with what they already know (prior knowledge) to create new ideas.


WRITING: The students are examining a range of information reports related to their current unit of inquiry on Colonial Australian History. They will learn about the key features of an information report and how factual information can presented to the reader.


MATHS: Our current Mathematics unit explores the concept of time. The students will work with analogue and digital representations of time, reading and interpreting timetables, converting between 12 and 24 hour time and problem solving.


INQUIRY: The Year 5/6 students have just begun their exciting unit of inquiry which investigates Colonial Australian History called "From The Past To The Present". These key questions will be explored:
- What do we know about the lives of people in Australia’s colonial past and how do we know?
- How did an Australian colony develop over time and why?
- How did colonial settlement change the environment?
 - What were the significant events and who were the  significant people that shaped Australian colonies? 


eLEARNING: The Year 5/6 students are continuing to use iPads to investigate the range of software available. They will continue to work with iMovie and Garage Band throughout Term 3.


Calendar Dates
  • 20-24/6 Year 6 Camp
  • 29/6 Maths Olympiad 3
  • 30/6 Curriculum Day
  • 19/7 Maths Olympiad 4
  • 16/8 Working Bee
  • 24/8 Book Week Book Parade
  • 4/9 District Athletics
  • 18/9 End of Term 3


Making News

 
Year 6 Camp

The Year 6 educational camp is being held from Monday July 20th to Friday July 24th at Coolamatong, located on the shore of Lake Victoria, 16 kilometres south of Bairnsdale.

The trained staff at Coolamatong and the staff from our school will be running and supervising all activities. Facilities include recreation and dining rooms, table tennis, volleyball, billiards table and basketball rings.

Activities include hiking, canoeing, orienteering, bush cooking, initiatives course, ropes course, climbing and a Gippsland Lakes cruise.







Year 3-6 Sport - Athletics

Throughout this term, the Year 3-6 students will participate in various track and field events in preparation for the upcoming District Athletics on the 4th of September. The students will spend Friday mornings developing their skills in each of these events, from sprinting to long distance running, high jump, long jump and discus, just to name a few. 



Maths Olympiad

Mentone Park’s Maths Olympians are continuing to participate in this year’s Maths Olympiads. The students have enjoyed the challenges that are set out for them in each session. Mr Wilton and Mrs Drummond have been impressed with the students across all grades and how they are extending themselves by completing the tasks at school and at home. Maths Olympiads will continue in term 3.